Category: October 2015

Matthew 4:4

He [Jesus] answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'”

When the devil tempted Jesus, Jesus turned the Word of God on him, saying, “It is written…It is written…It is written…” (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10) Likewise, should the devil remind you of the pain in your body, say what God’s Word says: “It is written, ‘By His stripes I am healed!'” (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24) And tell Daddy God, “I have Your Word for it and I am standing on Your Word. I am not trying to be healed. My healing has already happened. I don’t care what this body says. It has to line up with Your Word because by Jesus’ stripes I am healed!”

And if the devil says to you, “Look at the meager balance in your bank account. How are you going to pay your bills?” just say, “I’m not going to worry because I know that my God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19) It doesn’t matter how much I have in the bank. God’s Word tells me that as the need arises, the supply will be there!”

When fear grips you, don’t say to yourself, “This fear is stupid. Come on, what are the chances of it happening to me?” Don’t try to rationalize or reason your fear away. Instead, speak God’s Word into the situation. Say, “It is written, ‘For God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.'” (2 Timothy 1:7) What if the fear returns? Speak God’s Word again. Say, “It is written, ‘For God has not given me a spirit of fear…'”

When the devil tries to deceive you, give him the Word of God. There is something about the Word of God that causes him not to want to hang around those who use it. It reminds him of Jesus, the Word made flesh (John 1:14), who rendered him powerless and of no effect when He said, “It is written…”

1 Corinthians 11:26

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

In the Old Testament, whenever the children of Israel sacrificed a lamb for a burnt offering as they faced a strong enemy, victory was theirs. For example, in 1 Samuel 7:7-11, when the Philistines were coming against them, the prophet Samuel offered a lamb as a burnt offering. As it was being offered, the Lord came like a loud thunder on the Philistine army, confusing them. This led to victory for the Israelites. Every time something bad happened to the children of Israel, by offering a lamb sacrifice, they were proclaiming the Lord’s death, and the battle would turn in their favor.

Today, when we are faced with an enemy, how do we offer our “burnt offering”? How do we proclaim the Lord’s death and come out victorious? Do we ask Jesus to come down to where we are at and die on the cross all over again? Of course not. Jesus died once for all our sins – past, present and future. (Hebrews 10:12) His work is perfectly perfect and completely complete, so He doesn’t have to die for us again. Today, we proclaim His death simply by partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Every time you partake of the bread and wine, you declare to the principalities and powers of darkness that the Lord’s death avails for you. Every time you partake, you are saying that because Jesus has been judged and punished in your place, you cannot be judged and punished. Because Jesus died young in your place, you will live long. And because He conquered death and stripped the devil of his powers, you will not be defeated. The victory is already yours! That is why the psalmist David said, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies…” (Psalm 23:5) The Lord’s table is prepared for you in the presence of your enemies because when you partake of the bread and wine, you will see your enemies tremble and scatter! Why? Because when you proclaim the Lord’s death through the Holy Communion, you are reminding the devil and his cohorts of their humiliating defeat at Calvary’s cross! (Colossians 2:15)

1 Corinthians 3:7

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

Sometimes, we think that the increase or success which we enjoy is the result of our own efforts or hard work. Now, I am not advocating laziness, but the truth is that God is the one behind our increase. We see this truth when we read the story of Ruth, a young widow from Moab, who worked as a gleaner in a barley field from morning till evening. Now, we could attribute the entire ephah – a substantial 10-day supply – of barley she collected at the end of the day to her hard work. After all, she did work all day in the field. But when we read about how Boaz, the owner of the field, had secretly told his reapers to “let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean” (Ruth 2:16), we know that it was because of Boaz’s intervention that Ruth ended up with so much.

I believe that Jesus, our heavenly Boaz, does the same thing for us today. He causes people to favor us and “drop” blessings on us because He loves us. Then, He causes us to “pick up” these blessings. Often, it happens so seemingly naturally we forget that it is the Lord who has blessed us with the increases.

Your hard work is not behind your increase. The Bible tells us that it is “God who gives the increase”. He is the one who is behind your increase and He delights in blessing you because He loves you!

Genesis 26:12

Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him.

When you sow apple seeds, you get apples. When you sow seeds of friendship, you get friends. If in the natural, you receive in the area in which you sow, how much more will you receive in the supernatural when God blesses you! The Bible tells us that when Isaac sowed in the land, he reaped a hundredfold even though there was a famine in that land. (Genesis 26:1) The reason was that “the Lord blessed him”. So if you are believing God for a breakthrough in a particular area, sow in that area.

Whatever money or time you give to the Lord, He will multiply it back to you. For example, you have 24 hours a day like everyone else, but the Lord can make your day very fruitful. And even after doing all that needs to be done, you will find that you still have time left to rest. Even when you have nothing to give but prayers, your prayers will not return to you void. God can answer them exceedingly above what you have asked. When Job lost everything that he possessed, he prayed for his friends, and the Lord not only restored his losses, but He also “gave Job twice as much as he had before”. (Job 42:10)

So start sowing seeds in the area that you are believing God for, and know that before long, you will be reaping your harvest!

Romans 8:27

Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Wouldn’t you like to pray effective prayers that are always in line with the will of God and which always hit the mark? Well, when you pray in the Spirit, you can. You see, when we pray in English or our known language, and according to our limited understanding, we can pray amiss. Sometimes, our heads get in the way and we find ourselves asking, “Isn’t it selfish of me to pray like this?” or “Am I praying in line with God’s will?” That is why God gives us the gift of praying in tongues. When we pray in tongues or in the Holy Spirit, we can never pray out of God’s will because the Holy Spirit “makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God”.

In other words, we pray perfect prayers in line with God’s will when we pray in tongues. And the Bible goes on to tell us that “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him”. (1 John 5:14-15)

Isn’t it wonderful that God has put in you the Holy Spirit who prays perfectly? He knows the heart of God and precisely what you need. And He makes intercession for you because He loves you very much. The Holy Spirit is like your lawyer or legal counselor. He knows what belongs to you legally. He knows what your blood-bought rights are in Christ. Best of all, He knows exactly how to enforce them in your life!

When you pray in tongues, you allow the Holy Spirit to pray perfect prayers through you. He pleads your case before God. He knows where you have gone wrong and what the root of the problem is. He also has the wisdom, solution and power to win your case. With the Holy Spirit on your side, you cannot but come out victorious!

Galatians 4:6

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

Have you ever realized that God was never known as “Father” until Jesus came to earth and revealed Him as such? In His prayer to His Father, Jesus said, “And I have declared to them Your Name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26) What name was Jesus referring to? It was the name “Father”. If there was anything close to Jesus’ heart, it was to introduce God as “Father” to us.

In the Bible, Jesus said, “Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’…For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” (Matthew 6:31-32) Once, He said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11)

Jesus wants you to always have this image of God in your mind – that He is your Abba, Father. Why? Because He wants you to know that there is nothing more important or too insignificant for the Father when it comes to His children. Now, no matter how old you are today, you are still God’s child, so don’t think that your problem is too small for God. If it is important to you, it is important to your Father too. Always remember that He is your Abba, Father!

John 8:12

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

You may have heard a preacher say: “Jesus is the light of the world. So don’t think for one moment that you can do things behind His back. His light will expose all the bad things that you have done!” This would probably put the fear of God into anyone.

But is this what “the light of the world” actually does? The truth is found in the context of the verse. Jesus declared that He was the light of the world right after He had told the woman caught in the act of adultery, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” When she said, “No one, Lord”, He said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” Then, the Bible tells us that “Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world…'” (John 8:10-12)

How wonderful it is to know that when Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,” His light was not to show up the woman’s sin because He had just told her that He did not condemn her. This tells us that we don’t have to be fearful when we come into God’s presence. He is not there waiting to punish us for our mistakes and failures. His light is not for exposing our sins and shame, or for condemning us. No, His glorious light is for showing us how perfectly His Son’s blood has washed away our sins! That is why Jesus could tell the woman that He did not condemn her – because He would be condemned for her sin as well as ours at the cross.

Jesus’ light unveils the truth that our sins have been completely removed. It reveals how perfect and spotless we are because of Christ’s perfect work at the cross. When you know this, you can go boldly into God’s presence, knowing that you have the light of life that gives you grace and hope!

Galatians 5:4

You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

If you were to ask someone what it takes to get to heaven, I believe that the number one answer would be, “If your a good person you go to heaven”. In a worldly way of thinking it makes perfect sense that good people get rewarded, and bad people get punished. However, this age old philosophy will keep you as far away from Christ as you can get. Being a good person is great, but being good in order to please God is considered works and will never get you their.

Paul tells us that trying to be justified by the law, gets you alienated from Christ. In fact no amount of work, discipline, or moral behavior can save us. If anyone were trying to find favor with God by behavior then they would have to keep all of God’s Commandments and never break even the smallest one.

Trying to save ourselves by keeping all of God’s laws only separates us from God. Religion is a horrible way to approach God since it involves a lot of fear and condemnation. If you look at the High priest, on the Day of Atonement, you will notice that he wore bells around his garments and a rope was tied to his right ankle before he could enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple. If he did everything correctly he was able to survive in the presence of God. There must have been some fear in approaching God and entering into His presence. The bells were so that those outside could listen. If they kept hearing bells, that indicated that the priest was OK. If the bells stopped and they heard a thump, then they could pull the priest out using the rope. No one could enter the Holy of Holies (God’s presence) except the high priest or they would die.

Now the good news is that when Jesus died on the cross the temple curtain that separated the Holy of Holies was torn from the top down so that now anyone can approach God through Jesus. We need to place all of our trust in Jesus and His finished work on the cross. He has saved us! So does this mean we can just run wild through life? No! When we realize the price that Jesus paid for our salvation it will cause us to be a good person. I have seen people with very horrible backgrounds completely change when the accept Christ.

Hebrews 4:16

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

If you are facing a challenge right now, know that you have a standing invitation from your heavenly Father to come boldly to the throne of grace to “obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”. The phrase “help in time of need” means that you get healing when you are sick, provisions when you are in lack, and favor when news of job cuts or bad prospects are rife.

You might say, “how can I come boldly when I have been a lousy Christian?” You can come boldly because you come to God by the blood of Jesus Christ and not by how you have lived your life. So whenever you come into God’s presence, you don’t have to be afraid that your sins will be exposed because the blood of Jesus has removed every one of them. God does not see even one speck of sin in you because He sees only the blood of His Son, which has been shed for your total forgiveness and acceptance.

When you have failed and need mercy, God’s Word assures you that you will find mercy when you come boldly to God. Mercy means that you don’t get the bad things you deserve, such as condemnation, poverty, failure, loss and even death. And mercy is not the only thing that you will obtain when you come boldly to God. You will also find grace. Grace means that you get the good things that you don’t deserve, such as health, protection, anointing, favor, good success and life more abundant.

So come boldly to the One who loves you passionately, unconditionally and with an undying love. Come boldly to Him who knows everything about your situation and has the solution. He has wisdom far beyond that doctor you highly respect, that lawyer you greatly honor and the best experts you can consult. Come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace to help in your time of need!

Ephesians 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Some people think that the term “spiritual blessing” refers to only non-visible and intangible blessings like peace and joy. To them, God’s promise of “every spiritual blessing” excludes the tangible blessings of health, provision, a healthy marriage and so on.

Do you know what the word “spiritual” here means? In the original Greek text, it is pneumatikos, which in this context means having properties and characteristics belonging to the Spirit of God. So if you have the pneumatikos blessing of health, for example, it means that it is of the Spirit of God, and therefore does not depend on your exercising or dieting.

The same goes for the pneumatikos blessing of provision. It is of the Spirit of God and does not depend on our toiling seven days a week or monitoring the stock market closely.

Believe that you have received every pneumatikos blessing, and you will find yourself enjoying blessings that are eternal, just as God is eternal, and of a quality that only the Spirit of God can give!